Inexorable - Book 1: Exile
by darthtitan
Summary: In the wake of Delilah Kaldwin's coup, Emily Kaldwin has lost it all - her father, her lover, her home, and her empire. She is in exile far, far away from home, but nothing will stop her from returning and reclaiming all that is rightfully hers. Nothing.
1. A Beginning

**Disclaimer: I do not own "Avatar: The Last Airbender" or "Dishonored." They are owned by Nickelodeon and Bethesda Softworks respectively. Parts of this work may also draw influence from Genndy Tartakovsky's "Samurai Jack" and Fox's upcoming Wolverine film, "Logan."**

 **Notes: If there is sufficient interest in this fic, I will continue on; I have tentatively planned a 3-book arc - Exile, Empress Ascendant, and Emily the Wise. As always, reviews, favorites, and follows are greatly appreciated!**

* * *

 _Deep in the ocean, dead and cast away_  
 _Where innocence is burned, in flames  
_ _A million miles from home, I'm walking ahead  
_ _I'm frozen to the bones, I am_

A tall, black-haired form in a dark-blue pantsuit trudged onwards, unbowed and unrelenting even as the harsh desert sun pounded down upon her.

Ultimately, both a decade of reforms back home and a year's worth of effort in this foreign land against the "Fire Nation" had amounted to nothing. With respect to the latter, she had been swept aside by a single decree, all of the hard-earned respect and aid that she'd garnered scattered in the wind like ashes; regarding the former, mere moments had seen her father turned to stone and herself cast to this accursed land.

 _A soldier on my own, I don't know the way  
_ _I_ _'m riding up the heights, of shame  
_ _I'm waiting for the call, the hand on the chest  
_ _I'm ready for the fight, and fate_

Every night, the whispers grew louder, and she dreamed of strange, fantastic, and terrifying things. Sometimes, she saw herself back in court but with jackals in place of the usual courtiers; ironically, a sense of powerlessness permeated the atmosphere as she knew that she could not slay these creatures without losing something precious in the process. Sometimes, she saw a pyramid of skulls gathered in front of her throne, jackals or otherwise; a sense of vicious satisfaction pervaded this setting, but she had the uneasy intuition that she had become one of the jackals or worse in the process. Sometimes, she saw herself sitting with Corvo right by her side - not on her throne, but on the floor with her subjects themselves; her subjects gazed at her with respect and reverence; to her immense satisfication, in these dreams, the courtiers were relegated to cages in the shadows of the throne room, where they so rightfully belonged.

For the time being though, these were just dreams. Pandyssia _(see CODEX: PANDYSSIAN CONTINENT)_ interposed itself betwixt herself and home, and much as in Dunwall, precious few here had ventured past the mists at the outskirts of the Fire Nation's waters and returned to tell the tale. None of them were still alive today.

Those happy few, though, wrote tales of gleaming towers extending miles and miles into the sky, of giant metal birds taking off into the sky, of mushroom-clouds accompanying the utter obliteration of entire cities in mere seconds. Still others wrote of grotesque, twisty castles resting upon hovering rocks and one-eyed creatures popping out periodically through the castles' windows to glare at the intruders and throw grenades at them.

None of the survivors had ever managed to reach the shores of the continent though, for giant squids, octopi, and numerous other monsters had shoved their tentacles through even the hardiest metal hulls and had practically heaved the ships back out through the mist. Those that persisted in returning were never seen again.

Yeah, tales of Pandyssia were far more fanciful here than they were back home. And no matter what, she was not going to let that blasted continent stop her from getting back home, even if she had to turn into Granny Rags to do so.

 _The sound of iron shots is stuck in my head_  
 _The thunder of the drums, dictates_  
 _The rhythm of the falls, the number of deaths_  
 _The rising of the horns, ahead_

 _From the dawn of time to the end of days_  
 _I will have to run, away_  
 _I want to feel the pain and the bitter taste_  
 _Of the blood on my lips, again_

Like a rat sticking its neck out of the hole whenever the cat was away, the Outsider _(see CODEX: THE OUTSIDER)_ showed up every once in a while whenever she was alone. No matter what state or setting he found her in, he always stared at her impassively and spoke to her in his strange bass tones with little judgement. She couldn't help but feel amused at the thought that for all that he disdained Sokolov, he should at least recognize the vein of the true scientist that ran in both of them. For the Outsider only seemed to care about understanding the rationale behind her current actions; insofar as he cared about the consequences, he only wanted more interesting events to study in the future.

In a weird and slightly worrying way, she could empathize with the Outsider's boredom. It was the same boredom that had her sneaking out at night and flit past the guards via the rooftops. It was the same boredom that she had to mask whenever this courtier or that sniveled about how he could no longer afford golden cutlery, an army of servants, or other extravagances. She supposed that it did not make her a very good Empress, or for that matter, a good human being, but it was what it was.

Had her father not been literally petrified and her kingdom imperiled, she would have actually been thrilled by this sojourn. No expectations, no responsibilities, and many, many opportunities to test and hone her mettle against solid enemies in a new land - she was truly FREE from her gilded cage for the first time in a long, long while.

Or was that really true? Could anyone ever be free from their own story? Was her current predicament not fate's rebuke in its own way?

 _This deadly burst of snow is burning my hands  
_ _I'm frozen to the bones, I am  
_ _A million miles from home, I'm walking away  
_ _I can't re-mind your eyes, your face_

 _\- "Iron" by Woodkid_

She flexed her hand to smooth out the tremors. The burning ball of nothingness in the center of chest begged to be released, and she obliged. Squinting against the glare of the sun and forcefully extending her arm outwards, with her hand pointed at the distance, she focused on moving...

Energy rushed from her chest and into her arm; she amplified the flow by throwing in her own desperation to get out of this damned desert as fast as possible, to survive, and TO GET BACK HOME. Initially, she felt the energy coalesce into a single, thick tendril _(see CODEX: FAR REACH)_ ; she began flexing her fingers furiously, and the tendril quickly dissolved into the air, forming a blue glow around her hand. All of this had occurred at the speed of thought.

Former Empress of the Isles, Emily Kaldwin, disappeared in burst of light and re-appeared a few miles away, that much closer to the edges of the desert. _(See CODEX: BLINK)_

* * *

"WHERE IS APPA?" the Legion boomed down at the terrified Sandbending tribesmen.

"I don't know anything about your bison, I swear!" Ghashiun, the bison's kidnapper, stammered in terror.

"LIAR!" the Legion choked out through gritted teeth; it swept a hand out almost casually, and a gust of air of violently threw many of the Sandbenders out of the camp and sliced their wooden sand-trawlers in half.

"Son, what in Koh's name did you do?" the father bellowed at his cringing son; they were the only two who still remained within the confines of the Sandbender camp.

"Ok, ok, please don't hurt us! We sold him to a group of beetle-headed merchants. I don't know what happened to it after that!"

"HIS NAME IS APPA!" the Legion screamed out.

"Yes, yes, I don't know what happened to Appa," Ghashiun hurriedly placated the enraged Avatar. "You have to understand, I wouldn't have kidnapped him if I had known he was yours, I swear! We just needed the rations so badly, especially since we've been cut off from the city for so long. Please..."

"Avatar Aang, please forgive my son's impetuousness. We will lend you whatever aid you require in your quest to recover Appa. Please...please just let him go."

The Legion was unmoved by the father's request though; its eyebrows remained scrunched in fury and its teeth clenched as though it was undergoing a painful surgery. "YOU DARE ASK ME FOR MERCY AFTER TAKING APPA?"

Till that moment, the ball of air ensconcing the Legion had merely been a defensive measure, but now it began emanating bursts of fire-laden air outwards at the cowering Sandbenders. Several cried out in pain as they were singed by the super-heated air and thrown even further away into the desert.

On the fifth such burst, Ghashiun's father and the tribe's leader finally joined his compatriots, leaving the teary Ghashiun alone with the Legion. "Please have mercy!"

"YOU DON'T DESERVE IT." The Legion could feel the rightness of that statement fill its veins, adding to the wildfire burning within its chest. This...scum dared ask for its mercy after kidnapping Appa, his last true companion? How dare he!

It swept its right hand hand upward, and a wave of sand shot upward; simultaneously, it gestured downward with the left hand, and Ghashiun instantly sank into the desert until only his head remained free.

Making circular motions with the left hand, the Legion watched dispassionately as Ghashiun's mouth was forced wide open, and air was literally ripped out of his lungs. With a downward sweep of its right hand, the hovering wave of sand shot down needle-like towards the asphyxiating man's wide-open mouth.

"No!" Ghashiun's father yelled from the distance, staring helplessly as his son's death approached. Life in the desert was harsh, especially as Ba Sing Se continued to cut off access to trade and supplies; at the end of the day, the one light in many a Sandbender's life was their Tribe. Ghashiun was not only a son but the future leader of the Tribe, whatever his mistakes. Without him, the Tribe would see a leadership struggle within the next few moons itself, leaving them vulnerable to the predations of the beetle-headed merchants and the other tribes, along with the vagaries of the desert itself. The unity would be shattered, the brotherhood and camaraderie poisoned.

Fortunately, fate had other plans.

He blinked in shock as a blue-green tendril shot out of the sandy mists surrounding the camp and yanked his son away from his death. Surprised, the Legion released its control over both the asphyxiation and the wave of sand, which collapsed harmlessly into millions of grains that were swept up in the surrounding tempest.

Two flashes of blue later, a tall, elegantly dressed figure stood in front of the Legion, in the exact same spot where Ghashiun had been just moments before. It held the strangest sort of sword that he'd ever seen in one hand and wore a most curious mark on the other.

It raised the hand with the mark towards the enraged Avatar; even though Ghashiun could barely see the figure in the ensuing storm, he could clearly hear its - _no, her_ \- next words.

"You done sulking yet?"

The Legion did not get a chance to respond as another figure suddenly appeared in mid-air _(see CODEX: DOPPLEGANGER, DOMINO)_ , right above the legion; as it passed the floating boy on the way down, it flicked its fingers at the floating boy almost casually, and a thin blue tendril, invisible to everyone else rose into existence. It then closed its eyes and braced for impact.

"WHUMP!"

The crashing figure dissolved into wasps of smoke; the Legion barely had time to widen its eyes in surprise as it was ripped out of its bubble and sent crashing downwards much like the figure from a few moments ago. What remained of Aang within the Legion winced as the ground approached.

"WHUMP!"

As soon as the Legion's body crashed to the ground, the primary figure that had been standing right in front of it didn't waste time; with a flick of her hand, a thin rod popped out of her sleeve, and the crossbow's wings retracted. She fired twice into the body.

The sleeping darts took effect gradually as the unearthly blue light began to flicker and die, and Aang's tattoos became a regular shade of light blue once more.

As the gales died down, the Sandbenders hobbled back to camp cautiously. Ghashiun warily approached the Avatar's prone body and was about to prod it with his foot when the female figure turned her crossbow to his face with a furious glare.

Hands raised placatingly, Ghashiun stepped back and decided to thank the Spirits for his good fortune instead. Although given the curious mix of fury and relief on his father's face - he winced. At least, he was still alive.

Moments later, father and son had reunited, and the other Sandbenders worked on putting the camp back to rights. The father turned to the female to express his gratitude, but before he could do so, she had crossed over to his son and ripped off his necklace _(see CODEX: BONE CHARMS)_.

"Hey, that's mine!" Ghashiun protested.

Brown eyes flashed, and her lip curved upwards mockingly. She tilted her head in the sleeping Avatar's direction and said, "I could always wake him up."

With that parting comment, she walked back to the Avatar, swept him up over her shoulders with seemingly little effort, and began marching off into the distance.

"Wait, to whom do we owe our thanks, brave stranger?" Ghashiun's father yelled after her retreating figure.

Gesturing in Ghashiun's direction without once turning back, she responded, her soft voice somehow still carrying clearly over the wind, "Definitely not him."

* * *

 **INEXORABLE**

 **BOOK 1 - EXILE**

* * *

 **CODEX** **  
** _(Courtesy of Dishonored Wiki)_

 _ **Pandyssian Continent  
**_ Also known as the "Far Continent" and more simply as Pandyssia, it is the largest known landmass in the world of _Dishonored_. It remains unpopulated by the people of the Isles and the citizens of the Empire believe that there is no civilization on the continent.  
In the Avatar's world of Four Nations, it is obscured by thick mists at the outskirts of the Fire Nation's waters, and no explorers have ever managed to actually land on its shores.

 _ **The Outsider**_  
A mysterious supernatural being said to be part-devil, part-angel, neither good nor evil. He usually appears to people of interest as a plain-looking young man with short brown hair and black eyes, wearing a brown coat, blue pants and black boots.

 _ **Far Reach**_  
Supernatural ability granted to Emily Kaldwin by the Outsider. Allows her to shoot a long tendril from her hand, permitting access to high and difficult to reach areas.

 _ **Blink  
**_ Supernatural ability based on Far Reach. Initially, allows traversal of mid-sized distances instantaneously. With upgrades, can travel several miles at a time.

 _ **Doppelgänger**  
_ Supernatural ability granted to Emily Kaldwin by the the Outsider that allows her to summon a duplicate of herself.

 _ **Domino**  
_ Another one of Emily Kaldwin's supernatural abilities. It allows her to link several human targets so they will die or fall unconscious together.

 _ **Bone charms (or bonecharms)  
**_ Mystical objects created from the bones of whales, humans and other animals, each with a unique effect on the user's constitution and abilities. They can be used to augment one's abilities and complement mission strategies.

 _History_  
In the days before the Empire, ownership of bone charms (including those made from the tusks of walruses in Tyvia) was tolerated, as their effects were said to improve the lives of lowly serfs and prevent pregnancies. However, with the coming of the industrial revolution arising from Esmond Roseburrow's research on whale oil, the Abbey of the Everyman banned the use of bone charms, dubbing them witchery. Retaining bone charms is now considered a criminal offense, and there is a workshop at the Office of the High Overseer dedicated solely to the destruction of bone charms.

 _Function  
_ When they are equipped, bone charms provide a variety of enhancements, such as improving the effects of elixirs and remedies, swimming speed, jumping ability, equipment, and strengthening the protagonist's supernatural powers.


	2. The Beginning

**10 Years Ago...**

'Wait, what? Where am I? This isn't the Imperial Throne room.'

Delilah Copperspoon blinked in consternation and rapidly took in the inky black chaos around her. After the intensive period of meditation and chanting prescribed by the ritual, she had expected to open her eyes as Emily Kaldwin to the handsome, concerned visage of her "father," Corvo Attano. A trip to the Void was definitely not in the cards.

This was...

Delilah remembered Daud.

That good-for-nothing, meddling assassin! He had replaced her painting of Emily with one of the Void! Oh, as soon as her sisters had reversed the ritual and extracted her from here, she would hunt him down and make him regret his interference. No one messed with Delilah Copperspoon, head of the Brigmore Witches, expert Void-master, rightful Empress of the Isles! No one!

Hours later, she conceded that perhaps Daud could be the first in a long, long while. Not that the time in "solitary" had done her temper any good; she had entertained herself by channeling the ambient energies into throwing the chunks of floating debris at each other, all the while imagining that she was smashing together the heads of her foes. Daud would be first, that much was certain.

What was taking her sisters so long anyway? Having anticipated trouble of some sort, Delilah had ordered her closest followers to pose as ordinary citizens and to carry on with their mundane lives for the day; if she and her bodyguards failed to stop Daud, or the ritual somehow backfired, they were to check in by the hour and extract her from the situation, drained and weak as she would be. Not that she was a frail woman by any measure! No, Void-based possession rituals were energy-intensive in the highest order and required the highest-degree of focus and skill. No other denizen of the realm could even begin to imagine such an endeavor with their puny little mind.

Especially idiotic little assassins like Daud or Corvo, who primarily relied on the brutish tools of steel and fists instead of the raw yet elegant Void magics. Both had wronged her twice-over - the former by murdering an Empress and trapping her here, and the latter by failing to seek HER out after Jessamine's death and by sparing Daud during their skirmish in the Flooded District, which is how she ended up here in the first place.

 **6 Years Ago...**

She was BORED!

Bored, bored, bored, angry, frustrated, crushing mounds of rock into dust and then feeling each and every individual grain become one with the Void...

Who said she was angry? Was she angry? Who was she? There were voices in her head, singing and whispering random gibberish. Or was that just her, vainly attempting to while away the time here?

From time to time, she saw the monolithic whales pass by. They ignored her, she ignored them. What, she wasn't actively avoiding them and cowering in the ruins! Of course not! It was not as if the whales would swallow her up in a single pass, possibly inadvertently as she apathetically floated by their path of motion.

She was...

Who was she again? She distinctly remembered that she had been wholly human at one point, even if _that_ wasn't quite true anymore. No, she was more than human, superhuman, parahuman, paranormal...

A pair of red-haired visitors _(see CODEX: Lutece Twins)_ watched on from a distance. A considerable distance.

"Come along, brother dearest," Rosalind Lutece murmured. "Let's get out of here before the crazy witch notices us and starts flinging spells."

"Capital idea, sister mine," Robert replied with arrant sangfroid. "Veni, vidi, vici indeed. Thank God that there's no 'Comstock' in _this_ dimension - it has enough megalomaniacs as it is!"

"Definitely not where we should retire."

"Of course not. Elizabeth had the right idea - given the abundance of fine cuisine and sights, Paris proper is perfect for retirement."

"And I say, out of all the places that we've visited, you want to settle with something so mundane as Paris? Where is your imagination, man?"

"Was not the entire point of retirement to settle down into a semblance of normalcy?"

"Perhaps, but I thought it was to be a gradual, gentle process. Carpe diem and all that."

As the bickering pair faded out of the Void and returned to the sea of Lighthouses to move onto the next dimension, the loud shouts, "I AM THE QUEEN, THE EMPRESS, THE SUPREME OVERLORD OF THE VOID! I AM DELILAH!" followed along.

 **4 Years Ago...**

Two pairs of black sclera stared straight into each other. Had a third-party stumbled along like the Luteces upon the situation, they could be forgiven for initially assuming a romantic relationship between the two parties, so intense was the staring. At least until they noted the snarl on one party's face and the utter indifference on the other's.

 _So quarreling lovers then?_

The female extended her middle finger up at the sky towards this poor author. "Screw you, bastard! Thank whatever deities you worship that I cannot escape the realm of these pages to utterly eviscerate you and consign you to the rubbish heap where you belong."

 _Sheesh, a bit harsh, isn't it, D, De, DeeDee?_

Irritation and surprise quickly crossed over the female's face even as the male's remained as impassive as ever. She inquired, possibly with the first sign of hesitance that she had ever shown in this realm, "You know who I am?"

 _Uh, I think that I'll just skedaddle out of here..._

"Wait! You can't leave me here like this! I command you to tell me who I am!"

 _You just threatened to kill me, lady. I don't have to do anything._

"No, no, no! Peons such as yourself SHALL obey my every command! That is the way of the world. I COMMAND you to tell me who I am, or I will unmake you!"

Meanwhile, the Outsider cocked his head and closely studied the tall, skeletal woman shaking her first at some mysterious entity. Last he had checked, he was the only other humanoid in this realm, so he wasn't sure who she could be conversing with. Then again, it was a miracle that she had held together as long and well as she had; most other humans with such a discordant temperament would have disintegrated long ago.

Of course, there was the remote possibility that there was an omnipotent third-party similar to himself but far more powerful, just moving pieces around to create stories and study effects all in a vain attempt to alleviate boredom. But what were the chances of that?

At any rate, Delilah was a supreme disappointment. He had expected far more from her when he had first granted her his Mark and had introduced her to the Void. Given that Emily was projected to have a long, peaceful reign, it appeared as though Corvo was the only interesting contemporary "Kaldwin."

"Perhaps I shall meet with Emily after all," he muttered under his breath, turning his back on Delilah and floating away. "Introduce a little chaos into the mix of things..."

Unseen, the woman's eyes snapped onto his back, boring holes into his skull. "Emily, Emily, Emily, where have I heard that before?"

She drifted along; for once, all of her pent-up rage and frustration was directed away from ascertaining her identity or a mechanism for escaping this place (for she KNEW to the bottom of her withered heart that this was not her home dimension) and towards puzzling out who this Emily was.

"Emily, I tried to possess her and become Empress." She saw a pile of rubble floating around an ornate, commodious chair. "Empress of the Isles. Which makes her the current Empress, Emily Kaldwin, daughter of Corvo Attano and Jessamine Kaldwin. Which makes me -"

A snarl forced itself out of her throat. "Delilah. I am Delilah Kaldwin."

 **2 Years Ago...**

She watched as the nobles' chatter lessened in volume and then completely petered out.

Her time was almost here.

Her hand twitched almost imperceptibly - almost as a pair of guards in the middle of the room looked her straight in the eye and gave her respectful nods. With the surety borne of working in large crowds on a daily basis, they shanghaied the remaining guards into the appropriate formation.

Outside, the sun shone brightly upon Dunwall, a rare sight in the otherwise cloudy and dreary skies above the capital of the Empire of the Isles. So, when the doors opened, and the tall, lanky figure of Emily Kaldwin stepped through with her the bulky form of her father, Corvo Attano, right next to her, it momentarily appeared as though a halo of fire encircled her head.

In the deepest crevices of her labyrinthine mind, Delilah grudgingly admitted that her niece definitely had style.

 _Um, hello? I know that she's like your archenemy and all, but did you just see what I saw? She couldn't have asked for a better entrance! Heck, even I feel like kneeling in awe, and I've been inside every nook and cranny in your head, seen the wonders of the Void, and all that jazz!_

With practiced ease, Delilah ignored the idiot in her head. However useful he had been in helping her recover and retain her identity in the amorphous chaos of the Void -

 _Hey, I take offense to that! I never said I was male! Wait a second - I'm not an idiot either!_

Not now. She would not be distracted at the moment of her triumph.

 _Just get this over with already - I'm getting bored with all this waiting and pageantry. I mean, I would've thought that your time in the Void would have made you more, not less, impatient. Just look at the Outsider; I'm pretty sure that if he gave me powers, and I was just waiting like this forever, he'd show up within minutes and be all like, "WTF?! I PAID FOR A FRIGGIN' SHOW!"._

...Her time was almost here...

She watched Corvo and Emily closely as they elegantly strolled down the red carpet leading directly to the throne and came to a stop at the flower-bedecked portrait of Jessamine. To his credit, Corvo remained as stoic as ever; nary an emotion flickered over his face, and only a skilled observer such as herself could see the deep wells of pain in his eyes. Emily, on the other hand,...

By commoner's standards, it was nothing big; if anything, they would have been touched to see that their Empress was just as human as they were and would have pitied her loss. After all, Jessamine had been good Empress, a benevolent and just ruler.

 _Someone has a serious bone to pick with her dead sis -_

That fool was no sister of hers. She was Delilah Copperspoon, a Kaldwin only by the misfortune of birth. A misfortune that she would milk to the fullest.

Shaking herself from her thoughts, she continued to closely observe the young Empress. Emily's back had slumped ever so slightly from its previous military-style rigidity. While her father's eyes had purely reflected loss, Emily's brown eyes were pits of grief and rage, to the point where one would no longer be able to distinguish between the two. Her eyes and lips had narrowed severely, and her hands were flexing into fists.

Corvo shifted ever so slightly and whispered something in her ears, upon which Emily's face smoothed over, and the grieving child was shoved aside to make way for the regal Empress once more.

 _You know, she reminds me of someone._

SHUT UP! Why could that damnable voice never cease its prattling? That girl was NOTHING like her. Everything had been handed to her from birth; she had never had to work day in and day out for a morsel of food, to bare her body to passerby in the hopes that a drooling male would drop some coins, to mingle with the dregs of society despite possessing a noble lineage.

Even if her mother was dead, at least she had a proud, doting father. Not one who was ashamed of her birth, but one who stood by her thick-and-thin.

He would be the first to go. Let Emily feel the same pain and misery that she'd felt for so long.

As Emily lowered herself onto her throne and began addressing her subjects, Delilah casually flicked back the hood of her cloak and flicked her hands. A cloud of smoke and a murder of crows came crashing through the ornate windows, and the pathetic nobles began screaming and running around like chickens. Her guards, blessed with Dark Vision, leveraged the darkness to make quick work of the ones that she hadn't had time to suborn and rapidly proceeded towards the throne.

Suddenly, the darkness lifted. Delilah blinked in surprise as she saw one, two, then three guards die in rapid succession as Corvo flashed in and out of existence.

Ah, of course, she knew that she'd forgotten something...

Channeling her rage into the mark on her left hand, she felt time slow down to a crawl and watched Corvo's blinking degenerate into discrete physical motion once again.

 _Hey, Corvo looks as though he's in a stop-motion picture!_

Whatever. Flicking on Dark Vision with barely a thought, she saw the inky-blackness of the Void on the right-hand of Corvo's golden figure. She followed the thread from the mark on his hand back to the Well of the Void, and with utmost ease, severed the connection with a knife-like motion of her hand.

WHAM!

She felt pain in her shoulder and opened startled eyes to Corvo's snarling visage. Instinctively, she brought both hands in front of her face, and a blast of wind blew him away from her.

Corvo slammed into the throne's dais, but he picked himself up with remarkable alacrity. It was then that Corvo's face expressed the first real emotion ever since he'd entered the throne room.

Shock. Pure, unmitigated shock, as though the ground had shifted under him.

Delilah took quick advantage of Corvo's loss of composure at the sudden absence of his powers. With a flick of her wrist on her un-stabbed side, she withdrew her hidden crossbow; bringing it to aim at a stunned Emily, she fired.

A flicker of hatred and hesitation passed through Corvo's eyes, but he quickly made up his mind. With a roar, the aging assassin rushed towards Emily and pushed her aside.

The arrow hit Corvo right above his heart and knocked him onto his back with a surprising amount of force given its minuscule size.

Unfazed, Corvo quickly got back on his feet and surged towards Delilah with outstretched hands; so potent was his fury that, by this point, he had lost his capacity for speech and was making guttural, snarling sounds like a rabid animal.

Fortunately, just before his hands could close around Delilah's neck, the poisoned bolt took effect.

Corvo froze with his hands outstretched and a snarl on his face; were it not for the fact that the rest of reality was proceeding regularly, one would be forgiven for thinking that a Marked-One had just exercised Bend-Time. In another reality and time, Neville Longbottom would attest to the similarities between Corvo's current state and the victims of _Petrificus-Totalus_.

In the blink of an eye, jet-black fluid erupted from Corvo's nose and mouth and wrapped itself in sinuously around his body until the Royal Protector himself could not be seen. In yet another eye-blink, the process was complete - where the flesh-and-blood Corvo had once stood, there was now a stone statue.

 _You know, if you'd hesitated for even a second longer there, he would've had you; I was rooting for him, by the way._

A worthy opponent indeed. Glancing fleetingly at Emily, Delilah concluded from her glowering visage that the daughter would be just as much of a handful as her father. Well, it wasn't as if she had planned to leave any loose ends.

With a deep breath and furrowed brows, Delilah once again focused on the Well of the Void; this time, though, she let herself become the Well, become the very manifestation of the Void itself. She could feel it filling every pore of her skin and every crevice of her mind, seeking to claim her for itself.

No. Delilah was the Master of the Void, the Master of her own fate and destiny. She would bring this kingdom and eventually all of reality itself to heel and make them hers beyond the shadow of a doubt.

She opened her eyes and grinned menacingly as Emily involuntarily took a step back upon seeing her black sclera. A black thread sprang up between the pair, and with a tug, Emily came flying towards Delilah. Just when it appeared that the two would crash, she dissolved into black mist.

With another deep breath, Delilah relinquished her control of the Void and returned to the waking world. Her hands and legs shaking from her pain and recent exertions, she turned towards her kneeling collaborators.

"My most esteemed and august Empress," they chorused.

Yes. Their esteemed and august Empress indeed.

 _Well, I guess I'll go pop in on Emily while you're getting drunk on your newfound status and power._

Meanwhile, Emily fell screaming through darkness.

Initially, her senses were completely blinded - she couldn't SEE, HEAR, SMELL, or FEEL anything at all. Only her mind and memories assured her that she existed at all and wasn't simply a corner of the ambient darkness, that she had been futilely trying to scream even if she no longer had a mouth. Eventually though, as the pervading darkness resolved itself into dark-bluish mists, Emily (thankfully) regained her sense of self. She blinked - and wasn't that something that she never thought that she would be so grateful for! - and took in the sights of rock-like islands, colossal whales reminiscent of the Leviathans of legend, one-eyed furry flying creatures, and carnivorous flowers.

She continued to fall.

Now, in the distance, she glimpsed smoky images of objects ripping through the sky as easily as the whalers traversed the seas! Oddly enough, one such object was spherical in shape and fired a green blast at another, much-larger object, which subsequently exploded into millions of pieces of rock. Another object was somewhat triangular and narrowly escaped a fiery explosion; before it disappeared into pinpricks of blue light, she saw the letters, "NORMANDY," emblazoned on the side _(see CODEX: The Normandy)_.

Mercifully, a bone-white hand interrupted her fall at this juncture, and the chaos of the Void stabilized into the familiar dark-purplish mists and floating rocks that her father had described. She blinked and looked up as the hand dragged her onto one of the platforms.

"We meet at last, Emily Drexel Lela Kaldwin," the Outsider stated, black eyes surveying her clinically.

Nodding curtly, Emily cursorily brushed off the dust from her vest and inquired, "According to what you last told my father, we weren't ever supposed to meet."

"Things change."

"You mean you made a wild guess, and it didn't pan out. Guess even 'Gods' make mistakes."

At that, the Outsider fractionally raised his eyebrow but otherwise appeared unruffled. "No, I seldom make mistakes, especially when it comes to divination; I ascribe my high degree of accuracy to millennia of observing human and societal behavior rather than to my supposed God-hood or any powers bestowed by the Void, other than immortality of course."

"Ok, so things have really gone off the rails. Why?" Emily inquired with barely concealed impatience.

The Outsider sighed. "Delilah acquired access to the source of my power. Normally, mortals go mad in this place within hours; my Marked are protected by the nature of our bond, which siphons off a portion of my power to provide a simplified, personalized view of the Void, but even they cannot survive long-term sustained exposure to the Void to Delilah's extent."

"Is Delilah marked?"

"Yes. Furthermore, she is an exemplary witch and has deepened her connection to the Void beyond whatever the Mark initially granted her through various rituals. In fact, one of those rituals may have pointed her towards the Well of the Void and a path out of here."

"Can you help me get back?"

The Outsider stared at Emily pensively. "The Well of the Void is open to all, befitting the chaotic nature of the Void itself; currently, Delilah and I are engaged in a tug-of-war for control over its energies, and she's winning, especially due to the chaos induced by her recent coup-d'etat. Suffice it to say, I don't have enough energy to send you back home."

"Other options?"

Her left palm began stinging; Emily looked down and saw black lines twisting and turning on the surface of her skin until the Mark that she'd seen and traced so many times along her father's hand now glowed upon hers.

"You might need this as well," the Outsider whispered, extending a modded human heart _(see CODEX: The Heart)_ to her.

"Is that..." Emily broke off.

A faint smile appeared on the Outsider's face. "Yes, it is. Somehow, I'm not surprised that Corvo told you about it."

Reverently, she lifted the heart from his outstretched hand and gave it a squeeze.

 _Emily, sweetheart, is that you?_

Emily closed her eyes and willed away the tears. Brows furrowed, she turned back to the Outsider.

"Good luck, Emily Kaldwin. Use your powers as you see fit, and let the heart guide you on your journey."

 **Now...**

"What...what happened?" Aang yawned out. "Aaaargh, I feel like I was just slammed against the ground a hundred times."

Any remnants of sleep quickly disappeared as Aang's hands hit a polished wooden deck; jolting to his feet, he instinctively reached for his trusty air-staff, but his hands grasped empty air.

CRAAACK!

Aang swiveled around instantly at that noise and saw a tall, dark-haired woman holding his staff - what was she doing with it?! - in what golfers refer to as the "follow-through" position; he espied a small dark figure sailing off into the distance, and his blood boiled as he took in the rocks around her feet.

Turning to him casually and returning his staff to a perfect, upright position, she remarked, "Good, you're awake. Can you help me get this sand-sailer _(see CODEX: Sand-Sailer)_ up and running?"

* * *

 **CODEX**

 _ **The Lutece Twins**_

In 1893, quantum physicist Rosalind Lutece successfully completed a multidimensional transportation device, colloquially referred to as "tears," in a culmination of her research into the eponymous Lutece particles. (As a side-note, said particles powered the flying city of Columbia, which was first envisioned by Zachary Hale Comstock, her once-close friend and financial backer.) Using a tear, she brought over her male extra-dimensional counterpart, an attorney named Robert Lutece. After a series of events in which both were believed to be killed in their home universe, the two began using the tears to travel the multiverse and perform various experiments, the most famous of which involved Booker DeWitt and Elizabeth Comstock.

 _ **The Normandy**_

Either in another dimension or at some undefined point in the future of Emily or the Avatar's own respective dimensions, humanity will discover and ally with various alien species collectively referred to as the Citadel Races against a race of genocidal AIs known as the Reapers. At that time, human(?) Commander Shepard would lead the Citadel Races to victory against the Reapers in this starship/space-faring vessel.

 _ **The Heart**_

A vessel designed to contain a spirit (presumably that of Emily Kaldwin's mother and predecessor, Empress Jessamine Kaldwin), it is used to help uncover runes and bone charms hidden throughout the Empire of the Isles, beating faster when turned toward supernatural objects. In addition, when one squeezes the Heart, it whispers secrets directly into their mind concerning the current area, as it senses information about the world beyond mortal recognition. When the Heart is pointed at a person, it reveals secrets about them.

 ** _Sand-Sailer_**

The primary form of transportation used by Sandbender Tribes, sand-sailers are essentially U-Shaped wooden boards with a tarp anchored to opposite ends. Sandbenders (and presumably Airbenders) can use the tarp or "sail" to maneuver the device; their efforts are facilitated by a compass oriented towards the magnetic center of the Si Wong desert, the Si Wong Rock.


	3. Aang Awakens

**Aang Awakens**

(Fortunately, this was not a case of Rip van Winkle - not this time around.)

Much like the setting sun, the sky itself exhibited a reddish-orange hue. Nary a star was in the sky yet though, a matter that would be rectified soon enough. In another world and time entirely, a grieving father would repose in similar environs to recollect the precious, limited time that he had spent with son discussing the constellations; this would be his brief respite from that fierce, relentless quest for justice that he would once again resume upon daybreak.

But we are not here to talk about Bayek of Siwa _[See CODEX: "Bayek of Siwa"]_ and his journey through the Qatara Depression or his fight to put his son's soul to rest. No, we are here to examine the exiled Empress of the Isles, Emily Kaldwin, and the latest Avatar in a long cycle, Aang. They stand now on a Sand-Sailer, Emily with an airbending staff casually tilted onto her shoulder like a cricket bat and Aang with confused eyes and an unconscious cringe at seeing his staff used so crudely.

"That's an antique -"...CRACK!..."airbending staff, one-of-a-kind"...CRACK!"..."it can be used as a glider -"

At this, Emily paused mid-swing. "Really? Can you carry along any passengers?"

"Um, no? I mean, why would even think that it'd be possible? That" - here, Aang points to the staff - "is pretty awesome, but as it is, it can only just about support my weight. Also, I'm only 12, and I had trouble carrying a box of rocks back when Toph was training me in earth-bending."

"You're the Avatar, aren't you? And an Airbender to boot. Couldn't you surround me in a bubble of air and have it tail you as you fly along?"

"That's not how Airbending works!"

"Why not?"

"Because Airbending isn't about making air obey your will! You'll never get anywhere thinking that way! It's about letting the air guide you, flow through and into you, and finding the right set of currents to sync your chi to. It's about life and harmony, which means I can't just magic up a ball of air through the power of my mind alone!"

At that, Emily gave him a short nod and extended the staff outwards to Aang, who quickly snatched it away and inspected it for damages.

"You will have to pardon us, Avatar Aang, for our somewhat brusque introduction. We are sure that you understand the necessity of verifying the identity of potential allies, especially when they proclaim themselves to be masters of a lost art and/or legends of a bygone age. The circumstances of our meeting were further complicated by your enacting of justice towards the Sandbenders who so offended your sensibilities, something that we felt ran counter to both of our interests and therefore extracted you from as gracefully as possible. Leaving this all aside, we hope that we can forge a fruitful partnership going forwards given the convergence of our mutual interests."

Having said her piece, Emily looked at the twelve-year old boy expectantly, with her hand outstretched. The twelve-year old boy whose eyes had crossed during the verbose introduction.

"Um, I didn't quite get what you said?" he said meekly. "Could you please repeat that?"

Palm hit forehead, and Aang heard her mutter, "Right, he may be the World Spirit and super-powerful, but he's still only _twelve_. Keep it simple, idiot." Taking a quick breath to recover herself, Emily forced a smile upon her face and said, "In other words, it's a pleasure to meet you, even though I had to knock you out in order to keep you from destroying the Sandbenders for taking your pet."

Black spots swam in Aang's vision, and air deserted his lungs. He couldn't breathe, _breathe_ , **_breathe_ , and a rushing sound filled his ears -**

"It's ok, just focus on my voice. Easy there, easy..."

A hand soothingly rubbed circles on his back, and a firm but gentle voice slowly banished the spots consuming his vision. Air rushed back into his lungs, he could feel the air again, flowing in and out and all around...the unrelenting fury and desolation died down.

Around them, the swirling winds that had slowly but steadily been cycling around larger and larger quantities of sand died down.

Aang shook his head. "I'm sorry, what was that? I -"

"Panic attack."

"What?" Aang inquired with scrunched eyebrows.

"You freaked out and started entering the Avatar State when I" - here Emily hesitated before continuing delicately - "summarized recent events."

"Oh."

Aang felt sheepish. Some Avatar he was, getting scared at even thinking about the Avatar State and still refusing to admit that...that...

No, not now. He'd deal with that later. Right now though -

"Uh, I just realized, but I don't even know your name?" Aang asked, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

"Koráki. But you can just call me Crow, if that's easier." _[See CODEX: "Koráki"]_

"Crow, thank you so much for stopping me from killing those Sandbenders," Aang said sincerely. Gyatso had raised him to always offer thanks freely and with alacrity. 'I miss you so much,' he thought to himself wistfully. 'I'm so sorry - for running away in the first place, for nearly killing those Sandbenders, for -'

He started at the sound of fingers being snapped right next to his ears. "Earth to Aang, earth to Aang."

He laughed at that. Wow, Toph would really love that saying! It was super nifty - literally calling someone back to ground if they were soaring too high into their mind. But then thoughts of Toph launching surprise attacks and flinging balls of mud at random times filled his head, and he quickly resolved to never introduce her to this witticism.

"Glad to see that I amuse you," Emily stated dryly. "And as delighted as I am to have made your acquaintance, what exactly are you doing in this fine area?"

"Well, my friends and I were looking for this lost library with a crazy professor from Ba Sing Se, y'see...wait, that's not far back enough...actually, it all started when Princess Azula, this super serious knife-throwing lady, and a chi-blocker started chasing us...no, maybe I should go further back -"

Emily held up her hand to forestall further dithering on Aang's part. `Outsider's eyes.` _[See CODEX: "Outsider's Eyes"]_

"Just tell me how you got separated from your friends and ended up, well, where I found you."

Aang visibly drooped, and his false air of cheerfulness collapsed. "I was going ahead to" - here, he visibly gathered his breath, but the words wouldn't come out. So, he took a page from Katara's book and re-directed the original line of thought - acknowledging a portion of it and honing in on that -, "scout the area. But a sandstorm hit us out of nowhere, and before I even knew it, I was waking up in ropes in a Sandbender camp, and my friends were nowhere to be found. I couldn't see them anywhere, and I had to find them, so I just spun out of the ropes, knocked a few guys out, and -"

"Right, I get the picture," Emily interrupted, rubbing her temples with her hands. "Thanks."

She continued, "If you're feeling up to it, we can make some significant progress through the desert at night. I know you're worried about your friends, but the only thing to do is to keep moving forward. We're all trying to get out of this blasted place and into Ba Sing Se, so hopefully, we'll run into them along the way. Not to mention -"

The ground rumbled, and Emily broke off with a grimace. "We're sitting ducks if we just camp here for the night."

"What was that?" Aang asked.

"You don't want to know. So, do you want to help me operate this sand-sailer?" She flexed her wrist at that, and a gust of air disturbed the cloth resting on top of the rectangular plank.

Aang's jaw dropped. "You can Air-bend?!"

Emily winced. "Not exactly. Unlike you, I'm doing this all" - she smirked and tapped her head - "with the power of my mind. So, do you want to get this show on the road or what before we get gobbled up?"

The ground rumbled again, more intensely than before, and the duo nearly lost their footing this time.

Recovering, Aang asked with great trepidation, "Crow, what exactly is that?" as he got onto the sailer and started moving through the basic warmup katas to gently lift the sail off the board and get it billowing just right.

"You don't want to know."

And with that, the pair pushed off into the sea of dunes.

* * *

To start off with, it was not smooth sailing.

Aang had always been taught to let the air flow through him and to let his own body flow through the air in a harmonious dance, one that emphasized peace and balance above all else. Granted, he could do devastating damage with this dance during combat, as he had against Zuko and various fire-benders many times before, but he NEVER aimed to kill with it - only to incapacitate and put enough distance between himself and his opponents. So, he could feel each and every minute shift in the sail's direction, and he gently corrected it by taking on the errant strand of air himself, opening up the sail to the correct strands in turn. He did this continuously.

Emily periodically fired off short, rapid, _strong_ bursts. Every time, the sail would strain against the poles it was attached to and nearly fly off into the distance. Every time, Aang would have to frantically correct their course and settle down the disturbed, vibrating air patterns.

"Where in Vayu's name did you learn to bend air? Because you're doing it completely wrong," Aang gritted out after the umpteenth time that this happened. He was tempted to just force them to stop, so that he could teach Crow exactly how to do this properly. Because whoever had taught her clearly had no idea about even the basis of air-bending.

"I told you, I'm not bending air," Emily shot back.

"Well, you're doing something to it. It's really setting things off and making it hard for me to keep this going."

"You're in charge of direction, and I'm handling speed. We need to get out of this desert ASAP before we run out of water or food - thank you, Sandbenders - and before -"

She was rudely interrupted by a roaring noise as a huge scaly worm _[See CODEX: "Abyssal"]_ punched its way out from underneath the dunes just a few hundred meters behind them.

"We become that thing's dinner," Emily finished. "Hang on, I'll be right back. You go on ahead."

Within a blink of Aang's eyes, Emily had disappeared.

She reappeared right above the midsection of the worm, who in a parabolic arc was moving back towards the sands to go under once again, and 1 falling Emily was soon joined by a chain of falling Emilys. Each Emily flexed their wrists, and a sword handle extended outwards from underneath one sleeve while a gun extended from underneath another. As they landed on the body of the worm, they raised their swords without ceremony and quickly thrust it downwards while firing off bullets continuously with their guns.

To no avail - their swords and bullets simply bounced off the worm's hard exoskeleton, and as the worm rapidly tunneled its way back into the ground, they were thrown off and left on the ground. Eight Emilys quickly contracted into a single figure closest to the hole now left in the sand. Undeterred, the lone Emily ran towards the hole and continued firing off bullets into its deep, dark depths.

"Outsider's Eyes!" She cursed. "I can't get through the thing's exterior. I've tried everything - bombs, bullets, Molotovs - but none of it worked."

"What's that?"

She paused and saw Aang glancing at her gun curiously. Hastily, she retracted it under sleeve along with her sword. "Oh, it's nothing."

"Uh, that thing was making more noise than the worm. It was like you'd captured lightning and were firing it off. Wait, can you Firebend too? Are you, like, a time-displaced future reincarnation of me? Because you sure aren't a past one since I've never seen you before in the Avatar State."

Sighing, Emily responded, "No, I am not a time-displaced version of you. In fact," - Emily fought with herself for a moment before deciding to go for broke - "I'm not even from anywhere you've ever heard of. Let's just say that I'm a really long way from home and that you're the only one who can help me get back. So, let's make a deal, hm? I help you reunite with your friends and get out of the desert, and you help me get back. Deal?" She stretched out a hand.

Aang shook her hand enthusiastically. "Sure. Actually, we didn't even need to make a deal. Why didn't you just tell me that in the first place?"

`Emily, dear girl, *Face meet palm.*`

"So," Aang continued on, "where exactly are you from then? I mean, I'd have to know that in order to help you get back right?"

"You ever heard of the Empire of the Isles?"

Aang shook his head and tilted his head in confusion.

"How about Dunwall? Or Karnaca?"

The second word struck a cord within Aang. "Not sure where I've heard it, but Karnata -"

"Karnaca," Emily corrected mildly. _[See CODEX: "Karnaca"]_

"Karnaca," Aang accepted, "sounds familiar. For the life of me, I can't remember why or how though."

Emily stared at him thoughtfully. "How about," she unconsciously lowered her voice to a whisper here, "the Outsider?"

Aang shivered. If "Karnaca" had been a mere pluck of a string, "The Outsider" had been a gong. "Again, no idea why it sounds so familiar, but that I've definitely heard of. Who is he?"

"A traveler. Well, that's more than I'd hoped, given that my home's not on any of your maps, as far as I can tell. We can talk more on the way -"

She gestured forwards.

"Right," Aang sighed. "On the way."

* * *

 **CODEX**

 ** _Bayek of Siwa_**

One of the founders of the modern-day Assassin Order, he initially sought to avenge his son's murder at the hands of the Order of the Ancients but eventually discovered that he was a part of something far larger than himself. Several dimensions over, he is the star of the hit game, "Assassin's Creed: Origins."

 ** _Karnaca_**

Karnaca, also known as "The Jewel of the South at the Edge of the World", is the capital city of Serkonos, located in the eastern portion of the nation and at the southernmost tip of the Empire of the Isles. The city is located in a bay surrounded by high cliffs and lush forests, and contains a large and developed port. It also boasts a large silver mine and a plethora of wind turbines, which are powered by a combination of the high winds from the sea and whale oil imported from Gristol.

 ** _Koráki_**

The Karnacan counterpart for the modern Imperial word, "Crow." In case you're wondering, my fellow readers, the ancient Imperial counterpart for "Crow" is Corvo.

 ** _Outsider's Eyes_**

A common epithet used around the Empire of the Isles to express frustration with the situation. According to legend, the Outsider's black eyes can mesmerize even the strongest of minds and bend them to his chaotic will. Certainly, a few dimensions over, certain members of the crew of OutsideXBox, a popular gaming channel on YouTube, can attest to that.

 ** _Abyssal_**

A massive, worm-like creature that lurks underneath the sands of the Si Wong Desert. It is covered in shiny, metallic plates and periodically jumps in and out of the sands. The notoriously divided Sandbending tribes have actually held several joint talks to discuss ways to eradicate the creature since they can barely detect it due to its metal plates and have thereby lost a good number of men to it. Interestingly enough, the Abyssal is a newcomer to the desert as it only appeared two years ago. Sandbending shamans have taken to whispering that it's a sign of the Spirits' wrath at the increasing number of youngsters abandoning their ways while said youngsters are retorting that it's a sign of the need to evolve and change. But that conflict is a story for another time.


End file.
